Employees are returning to the office after very different sexual experiences during the pandemic.
An Apple employee who is single believes returning to the office will improve their sex life because “I can expand my network, meet people and go on dates.”
But a Twitter employee in a relationship says going back to the office will hurt their sex life because that means “Less time for a nice li’l midday romp.”
The 50 million Americans who worked remotely during the pandemic — including almost all Bay Area tech workers — are returning to the office with very different viewpoints, according to researchers, data and tech workers. Midday romps have been a national pastime for remote workers with romantic partners, but single workers haven’t had such a convenient answer to the challenge of intimacy during COVID.
Ignoring sexuality is a ‘disservice’
Sex and work do not comfortably mix, but they have cohabitated in the same small spaces during COVID isolation, profoundly altering how we see ourselves, our partners and our sexual needs. We are bringing all of that into the workplace to collide with colleagues’ evolving sexual identities. Pretending otherwise is “doing a disservice to the overall health conversation that we’re having,” says Jessamyn Bowling, lead author of the research paper “Perceived Changes in Sexuality during the COVID-19 Pandemic.”